WHY DALLAS, TEXAS FOR DATA CENTER SERVICES?

Why Dallas?

Data center construction is flourishing in North Texas. Some say that it's the biggest boom ever in facility development.

The D-FW area so far this year has been one of the top five U.S. markets for data center demand, according to a new study by commercial real estate firm JLL. "Overall workforce growth, corporate headquarter relocations and regional office expansion has created significant demand for more data center supply," JLL said in its new report. JLL estimates that more than four times as much data center space is planned for North Texas than is now under construction.

What is attracting companies like Facebook (1 million square feet), State Farm (15-acres), Toyota, Caterpillar, IBM and others to Dallas-Fort Worth for their critical infrastructure?

With a 100,000 square foot site in Dallas, TX, Carrier-1 Data Centers chose the area for the following reasons:

The Texas Power Grid

Texas is the only state in the union that can boast its own private power grid. Meaning, if you buy power in Texas, you are not sharing it with any other states. California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Chicago and Miami all have power grids that share with other states. Couple that with North Texas' low risk of natural disasters and you have a perfect location for a primary and/or secondary data center site.

Carrier-1 offers colocation solutions for clients looking to house their data infrastructure in a fault-tolerant facility or to back up their data at a secondary site for disaster recovery planning. Also available is Carrier-1's Business Continuity Center that provides a second home for personnel when their primary office site is rendered unusable (i.e. in the event of a disaster).

Low Cost, to do business

Price-per-watt costs in Texas are relatively low and stable, allowing Carrier-1 to keep costs low and stable. Energy costs are currently at a record low.

Doing business in the area is affordable also because a cost of living that's 98.9% of the national average (Forbes, 2012).

Low cost of real estate and tax incentives also play a role in savings over other markets.

Dallas boasts one of the lowest levels for natural disasters. It's not a natural flood zone. Hurricanes are weak and toothless by the time they (if ever) make it this far north. Snowfall usually melts within a day or two and there is a 1,400-mile buffer zone that separates Dallas from Californian earthquakes. In fact, Dallas experienced 79 percent fewer earthquakes than the national average.

Other markets are not as fortunate. In addition to offering primary data center colocation space, Carrier-1 offers secondary colocation space for disaster recovery purposes as well as a 10,000 sq. ft. Business Continuity Center, furnished and connected office space for personnel as backup.

Fast and Diverse Network Access

Dallas has among the lowest latency anywhere in the country. Carrier-1 has a presence in multiple major telco hotels in D-FW. The Dallas Infomart building is the hub of connectivity for the Southern U.S. Nearly all IP traffic for the entire state of Texas flows through it. Carrier-1 has a presence in this building through the meet-me-room provider, Equinix, which grants customers access to over 100 network providers. Network providers also have direct connectivity within our Carrier-1 data center.

Geography

North Texas is the most central major metropolitan areas in the United States. Dallas maintains not one, but two large airports. This means more flights to more destinations, and more competition means cheaper airfare. Simply put, traveling in and out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex is quick and easy.

Strong Economy

Dallas has the sixth largest metro GDP in the United States.

The D-FW Metroplex has one of the largest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the United States, including 24 Fortune 500 companies, 38 Fortune 1000 companies, 10 companies listed among America's Largest Private Companies (Forbes, 2012) and 147 headquarters of companies employing at least 1,000 globally including AT&T, Hunt Consolidated Oil and 7-Eleven. Major industries in Dallas include defense, financial services, information technology, life sciences, semiconductors, telecommunications and transportation.

A strong economy brings talent. The Metroplex adds an average of 187 new jobs daily, maintaining 48% of Texas' high-tech workforce.

According to recent studies, Dallas is estimated to be the fourth largest multi-tenant data center market in North America. The robust, diverse economy of the area keeps enterprise demand for data center space (both wholesale and colocation) high.

Altogether, the facilities and commitment to tenant support we provide makes it easy for us to provide unmatched colocation and Internet infrastructure services to our clients and customers. But a big advantage to our Dallas location is the city of Dallas itself.